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‘It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.’

Prentice McHoan has returned to the bosom of his complex but enduring Scottish family. Full of questions about the McHoan past, present and future, he is also deeply preoccupied: mainly with death, sex, drink, God and illegal substances…

Review – My first ever Iain Banks novel, and it was most certainly captivating. What an opening line to a story that kept me hooked and wove me expertly into its web. I have heard this authors name many times before, and i knew they had a big following and some of their stories had been turned into television programes, but i did not realise how absorbed i would be into McHoan’s story and his dissecting what he comes across when he returns home. Not going to give anymore of the story away, but this book was out of my usual reading genre and it goes to show sometimes you have to take a step in a new direction to find books that can take you on a different type of journey.